Review of Dark Shadows (2012) by Halfwelshman — 25 Jul 2012

With Dark Shadows, Tim Burton reminds us just how good his films can be. It's not on par with Beetlejuice or Corpse Bride, but it's an extremely fun ride and almost makes up for the disappointment of Alice in Wonderland.

It's visually sumptuous, with Burton's trademark gothic flair and some pleasing 70s period details, and has a solid atmospheric soundtrack from Danny Elfman, bolstered by an eclectic collection of cheesy rock, pop, soul and disco tunes.

It's well-acted across the board, particularly by johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Jackie Earle Haley and Chloe Grace Moretz, and a gag-laden script by Seth Grahame-Smith and an abundance of camp energy helps to make the film thoroughly enjoyable.

The best scenes are in the film's first half, with vampiric aristocrat Barnabas (Depp) adjusting to the 20th century and to his highly dysfunctional family after being forcibly entombed for 200 years.

The film does, however have a big problem with maintaining a consistent tone. It's dark, but would probably benefit from being either even darker, and though the horror elements have been toned down because of its low age rating, I would suggest that it's a bit too raunchy to be suitable for some of its intended audience.

This raunchiness does result in a very funny supernaturally-powered sex scene between Barnabas and manipulative witch Angelique (Eva Green), but the majority of the implied sexual goings on may result in some awkward questions posed to parents by their children after seeing the film.

Also, the special-effects dependent, relatively big-budget finale of the film was presumably meant to be exciting, but comes across as stupid, overblown and belonging to an entirely different film. At other points, there are scenes that appear a bit disjointed and unconnected to those that came before, and Eva Green is guilty of some wooden delivery of her lines, and an accent that alarmingly frequently changes continents.

I'm not sure if Dark Shadows says much about anything below its immaculate surface, but the film remains a memorable, funny and light-hearted romp which Burton fans will love, and it proves that there is still afterlife to the relationship between the goths' director and his favourite actor.